Transparent links (/c)

A transparent link redirects to exactly the URL in its url= parameter, in one 302, or refuses with an error page. It never substitutes another destination. This is the behaviour Google requires from certified click trackers, so /c/ links are what you put in Google Ads tracking templates. Setup in Google Ads: Google Ads setup.

https://trackcrown.com/c/OFFERCODE-PARTNERCODE?gclid={gclid}&campaignid={campaignid}&force_transparent=true&url={lpurl}

Link key#

The part after /c/ decides what the click is attributed to. It is resolved in this order:

A trailing slash is accepted. Any path also honours url=: /r/…, /click, /s/… with url= behave the same way.

Parameters#

How url= is read#

• The key url is matched case-insensitively. A + in an encoded value stays +.
• Two url= parameters with different values are refused (duplicate_url) because parsers disagree on which wins.

Validation and allowlist#

The decoded target must be:

• an absolute http:// or https:// URL of at most 4,096 characters;
• free of spaces, control characters, backslashes and user:password@;
• on a public DNS hostname — no IP addresses, localhost, .local, .internal, .home.arpa or single-label names;
• on the allowlist: the workspace's Allowed destination domains ∪ the offer's Allowed transparent destinations ∪ the host of the offer's Destination URL ∪ the hosts of its landing pages (for a smart link: of every offer it references).

Rules: *.example.com (or .example.com) matches example.com and every subdomain; example.com matches example.com and www.example.com.

Google parallel tracking: https://google.com/asnc/… and https://www.google.com/asnc/… are always accepted, whatever the allowlist says, because Google substitutes {lpurl} with that endpoint in background requests.

Refusals#

A refused request gets an HTML error page — never a redirect — and is logged as a blocked click with the reason.

Full list: Error codes.

What is added to the destination#

Nothing, except:

1. Macros inside the url= value — only these are expanded (both {name} and encoded %7Bname%7D, values percent-encoded): {click_id}, {transaction_id}, {aff_id}, {offer_id}, {sub1}…{sub10}, {source_id}.
2. The click ID parameter, only if Append the click ID to transparent redirects is on in Workspace settings: <Click ID parameter name>=<click id>.

Every other byte of the URL — including its own encoding and #fragment — is preserved.

GET /c/OFFERCODE?url=https%3A%2F%2Fshop.example.com%2Fp%3Fa%3D1 HTTP/1.1

HTTP/1.1 302 Found
Location: https://shop.example.com/p?a=1&click_id=0192a6c3f1e04b7e9c2d8a1f3b5c7d9e

(The click_id part appears only with the append option on.)

Status is recorded, never enforced#

Offer status, partner approval, targeting, traffic controls and caps are evaluated only to label the click:

Schedule, terms, extended targeting, forwarding, fail routes, landing pages, pre-landers and redirect mode never apply. No cookie is set.

Click IDs from the landing URL#

gclid, gbraid, wbraid, msclkid, fbclid and ttclid found in the query of the decoded url= are stored on the click (read only — the URL is not modified). The click mode is parallel for the asnc endpoint (or Google's gb=1 marker), sequential for other Google clicks. One gclid counts as one unique click per link within 30 minutes.

Unknown or deleted link keys#

If the key no longer exists (renamed or deleted offer, partner or smart link) and url= is present, the tracker still redirects when the target is the asnc endpoint or passes the combined allowlists of the brand's active workspaces; the click is logged with reason unknown_link. Otherwise it shows the 404 page. Offers, partners and smart links with recent clicks are archived rather than deleted, so live ads keep working.

Methods#

GET, HEAD and POST (body ignored) return the identical redirect; other methods get 405.

Test a link#

Use Tracking → Google Ads → Transparency tester, or the Test with a real final URL field on the offer's Tracking tab, which checks the allowlist and builds a test link. See Transparency.